The Story of my and my brother's original music.

http://www.myspace.com/mistlethistle

MistleThistle Biography

I met my brother some time after I was born. He is seven years older than me. His name is Tim and I am Walter. Tim and Walter Holstad. We started working on music together probably some time in 2007 I would estimate, maybe 2006. I was living at my mom's in Muskego at the time so we would practice in her living room on occasion or I would go over to my brother's apartment around 80th and Oklahoma in Milwaukee.

My brother is a very prolific writer and very determined. He writes a lot and makes a point to work very hard at his music. He is one of those people that were told to work hard in life and took it to heart I think. I on the other hand like to enjoy things in life and treating the music too seriously takes the fun out of it in my opinion. There is room for both. Certainly without some effort songs will not be written and polished to a decent level but if there is no heart or joy in your music it will sound lifeless and boring. I have about 15 or 20 songs that I have written. My brother has a lot but we play probably around 20 of his.

Our first show together was at my brother's wife's uncle's house in Minocqua, Wisconsin. We played out on the deck at his house on a lake. It was pretty fun and for the most part people enjoyed it. At the end we played a blues jam and people wanted us to keep playing but I was a little nervous and putting my guitar away at the time so we stopped.

I played a Battle of the Bands show in June of 2009. I played this show with my friends Ian and George and Tim did not play. Tim and I were not playing together at this time. We separated after working with a new drummer because the new mix of tension and egos was too much of a burden to continue. The battle of the bands show was at the Rave in a smaller side bar area. I had a lot of fun at that show and it went pretty well. We did about 6 songs, 5 originals and a cover of Eddie Vedder's Society.

Recently Tim, Chris ( the new drummer I spoke of ), and I got back together to play at a fashion show at Crisp bar that I had been invited to play at. The show was September 26th, 2010 and was a lot of fun. We had about 3 practices in the 2 weeks before the show and that was it so it was kind of tough. The songs were not fully polished and ready so the show had its ups and downs. It was good practice and there were some good parts for sure. I did get some applause after a guitar solo and some of the songs were pretty solid. It was definitely a learning experience and hopefully we will have more shows in the future to build on the experience of this one.